History Driven Home: A Grandfather’s Letters | DAMMaged Goods

The mail is rarely the bringer of anything worth while for me. Not email or FedEx but USPS – it’s usually bills, reminders about past due ones or worse…jury duty.  Or just plain junk. But every once in a while something beautiful or precious intersects your life through delivery and for me it usually comes through the snail mail.

Last week, just this thing happened. My Grandfather Robert E. Damm (author/inventor/sage) sent me something that just writing this swells my heart simultaneously with pride and emotional gravity. Something that chokes me up for the right reasons. Something that matters to me in every sense because it puts things in perspective.

When I say perspective I mean personally, socially, historically and genealogically. In fact there is no facet of me as a person that isn’t affected by this gift. Before I tell you what it is, some information is required.

My grandpa is a hero. The real kind.

If you ask him he will deny this vehemently saying he was just doing his duty and he was not nearly as much a hero as the ones who did not come back. See…a real hero.

Grandpa fought in WWII in the Pacific Theater from early 1944 through the close of the war. He was with the ‘Sightseeing” 6th Infantry Division at Maffin Bay and the Battle of Lone Tree Hill. He  encouraged my artistic nature from the age of 5 and  helped get me sober 7 years ago. He raised my father to be a hero too – of a different sort but the same honor. he also wrote a book about how he got through called Tiki-Tiki Rimbo which is a great read. Get it HERE or at Amazon.

So when I get ANYTHING in the mail from him my day is made. In the past he has sent me hand made family history, an autobiography and always the best letters, Christmas wishes and neat little self enhanced or invented gadget. He truly understands what life has  offer and how you must quest after it to appreciate it…or properly assess it. Inspiration with a capital G.

This time I could not believe my eyes, it was a handmade book of all the letters he wrote to his mom from the field during the war, spiral bound and chock full of photos. What was more it was a one of a kind book. He scanned each page by hand and the book is made of photo paper. Every single page is wrapped in love and care to only me and I am so humbled by this attention that description is difficult.

It is a snapshot caught in an old school real time. This book is a glimpse into the life of Gramps, young and in an uncomfortable surroundings. It is a painting of the way the world was and what we have lost. It is an indictment of what we think we have gained as folly too. It is s beautifully thought out and so tenderly given it  has transcended time itself and plugged me into an understanding of both Grandpa and his experiences.

I can’t quit reading it. I can’t write anything ’til I share some of it with you. So photos and samples to follow. This is where I came from. I am it, and I am proud of him.

Here is one letter from Grandpa to Great Grandma who I am also getting to know through one-sided responses and references.

Dated Nov. 11 1945

KOREA

Dear Mom,

I received my discharge papers from the hospital today but I am still here in the ward awaiting transportation back to the battery. The doctor came around this morning gave me a checkup and said I didn’t have any more jaundice. I could have told him that as I have had more appetite and felt better than ever. This is my 16th day in the hospital, I guess it’s about time I am getting out.

You know I am really starting to get anxious about what is going on at home, I am beginning to feel forgotten. I haven’t received a single piece of mail from anyone for 60 days. I refuse to believe you are not writing cause a lot of the other fellows are not getting their mail either. Hertha subscribed to Reader’s Digest for me last May and have received only 2 copies. I have received only one issue of the Hebron paper so I know the mail is tied up somewhere. I hope it gets untied soon.

It has been over three months since I was last paid. I was paid on July 31st then I was on D.S. at the air-section when it came time to sign payroll for August so I didn’t get paid.When I was in Manila cooking at the rest camp, I signed the payroll and got paid but only for the month of Sept. I told the paymaster I had two months pay coming and in order to keep the payroll straight he had to redline me  and I had to turn in my pay again. Then I signed the October payroll but was here in the hospital on payday. Now it is too late to sign for Nov. payroll and I won’t get paid this month. So, to make a long story short I won’t get paid til the end of December. According to my figures I have more than $200 coming then 2 months PFC pay and 3 months T/5 pay. To make things more involved we get paid in yens here and one yen is worth only 6 and 2/3 cents. Therefore I will have about 3,300 yens. That sounds like a lot of money, it would be for a Korean. The average Korean would have to rob a bank to get that much. A school teacher gets 50 yen a month. Guess they live on a couple of cents a day.

You know this climate reminds me of home, each day it is getting a little cooler, one morning there was frost on the ramp as I went to breakfast. I shouldn’t be surprised if we had a white Christmas. We haven’t had a drop of rain yet since we have been in Korea. I’m just getting used to this cool weather. You know we left the Phillipines where it was so hot and a week later we landed here and almost froze.

Not only the climate but all the surroundings here are different. The private homes of the lower class are the usual mud and grass shacks, but a lot of the other buildings are wood and brick. The roads are all hard-surfaced although the mode of travel is still donkey and cart. The way these people dress is really something out of the ordinary. I won’t try to describe the dress but I’m going to try and secure some film and take pictures. It seems the men wear uniforms and so do all the school children. Each school has a special uniform.

 Well that is all I can think of any more to write, hope you are writing. I should be leaving the hospital today or tomorrow. I am fully recovered and feel just fine. Hope you are well.

Love, your son Bob

I love you Grandpa. Thanks.